Okay, let us just get through this recap. This is painful for me (as I don't drink near as much as I used to weeknights).

First Period – Just as Pierre and Edso are talking about what a great rookie Barrett Jackassman was and how he totally deserved to win the Calder over Z, Tatar takes the puck on a faceoff win down low and absolutely schools this Allen kid. Nice work by Eaves to tie up Petra Angelou too (any relation to Maya?). 1-0 Red guys.

Not too long after that Drew Miller takes a feed from Tootoo on a nice little give and go style play and drives the net, pokes in his rebound and oh my Bog the defense of St. Louis looks awful. 2-0. This movie thus far is more UnHitchcockian than the latest Texas Chainsaw feature.

The first PP goes to Detroit on a frustration play by Jackassman after Brunner, Abby and Zetterberg (imagine that line) goes “Harlem Globetrotters on StL” to quote my bald yammerhead friend, P-Mac. That’s about where the good news ended though. StL scores on a 2-on-2-cum-Odd-Man-Rush as Abby and Kronner struggle to cover Yoshi and Bergland and the Wings give up a League-high 3rd shorthanded goal. Uh-oh. Momentum did not belong to StL after this, but game was not completely dominated by Detroit like it was earlier, either. 2-1 after 1.

Second Period – After outshooting Detroit 6-1 through the first 6 minutes, StL draws a penalty and Tarasenko cashes in the PP (surprise!) making them 8 of 14 vs. Detroit this season. Wowzas. Shortly thereafter the Wings give up a breakaway goal on a very, very bad line change involving Kindl and Ericsson.

It is 2-3 now, we have blown a 2 goal lead on a great start with all the momentum in the world and Good Hell, my world is crumbling around me and the twitternets are going wild with hate on Babcock, this team and Jim Howard. Thank Christ we have a guy named Pavel Datsyuk. He banks in a beauty from behind the net off of the young goalie’s leg, who is in in his first NHL start and tie game. Welcome to the NHL kid.

Third Period – Errrrm. Nothing really going on here. I don’t mean that in a “I am too lazy to recap this snoozefest” I mean holy crap, ABSOLUTELY nothing going. Some good saves by Jimmy Howard to make sure our defensive collapses don’t cost us a point, some nifty plays by Pav and hard work by Z, all 4 lines rolling and some good effort by the bottom six especially. But in the end, nothing good.

OT – I’m over it. Not a great play by anyone on the ice after the turnover and Jimmy lets in a pretty soft goal to Steen. At least we get a point. But this one hurt. St Louis was really struggling and we found a way to lose by only getting one shot on net in the third period (WE EVEN HAD A POWER PLAY!) on a debut goalie. Awful stuff.

NOHS 3 Stars:

1st Star – Tomas Tatar. What a goal. Played well all game, was a nuisance to StL all night and almost had 2 goals, which would have really put the Blues down but he missed a pretty wide open net. Still, he had a great game and his speed buggered StL all night.

2d Star – Pavel Datsyuk. Definitely a creative, Datsyukian move to tie the game after we were down and out. Tricky. Tricky, tricky little Russian. We are never counted out until the clock beats Datsyuk.

3rd Star – Nik Kronwall. I thought he was one of the few consistently reliable defenseman. Really negated a few chances by being strong down low, playing the body not the puck, and tying up attacking Blues that would otherwise push gimmies past Jimmy on way too easy centering passes.

Honourable Mention – Keith Jones, believe it or not, during the NBCSN intermission or pre-game or whatever. Liam McHugh asked him (after a brief montage of St Louis Blues greatness and Hall of Famers’ highlights) “What comes to mind first when you see all those great and all those great moments from St Louis?” Jones’ response: “No Cups.” Exactly. STFU.

So anyway, the Red Wings Organ-I-sation and we here at NOHS would like to apologise for the bitter taste in your mouth after that game, and worse yet, the horror of 1/2 of the image at the top. We hope this next photo does "something" for you.